


not a customer

by Ludella



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Library, Fluff, Illiteracy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-17 05:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16089098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ludella/pseuds/Ludella
Summary: The same purple tiefling comes into the library at the same time every day, and Caleb can't help but be curious about him. Not only is his appearance unusual for the setting, but he can tell there's more to the man's visits than just picking up a book.





	not a customer

He comes in every day now, surprisingly.

Caleb sits behind the counter, only glancing up from his book briefly as the bell over the door rings. It’s no surprise when the bright purple tiefling waltzes through the door at the same time as every day and offers Caleb a bright smile as he approaches his desk.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” he calls, and Caleb leans over to look out the window. It’s raining.

“Every day is lovely to you regardless of the weather, isn’t it?” Caleb asks as he pretends to occupy himself with organizing something on his desk to avoid making eye contact with the stranger-than-strange stranger.

“A day is far more than its weather,” the tiefling explains as he pats the desk and walks into the sea of bookshelves behind him. That’s the extent of conversation they usually have the past few weeks the man has come in. Caleb can’t say he doesn’t prefer silent patrons in his library, but this man has caught his interest for one simple reason.

With the tiefling’s back turned to him, Caleb openly watches him browse the books on the shelves and pick a few out. One is the same he grabs every day. The others are random. He sits down at one of the six tables in the middle of the library and sets them out before him, opening to a random page, and staring at the pages hard. And stares. He doesn’t turn the pages.

Caleb frowns. Just as he thought; the man can’t read.

It’s troubled him ever since he noticed. The single book he always grabs is one on linguistics, comparing and explaining the differences between multiple races and countries’ home languages and alphabets. It’s an interesting read, and Caleb has gone through it a few times since he noticed the man’s fascination with it. But every time he reads it, he only picks a random page and occasionally flips through it.

‘ _The words won’t just suddenly come to you_ ,’ Caleb thinks as he tries to ignore him. The most frustrating part of the man’s continuous visits is how Caleb can’t seem to focus on anything else when he’s here. He’s just... curious, is all. Usually the people who come into a library as frequently as him are avid readers or scholars, not... odd creatures who can’t even read.

The man leans his chin in his hand, eyes not moving from the pages of the book in front of him. If he’s frustrated or confused, he doesn’t let it show on his face.

‘ _Why are you coming here instead of a school?_ ’ Caleb wants to ask. _‘It’s impossible to learn this way_.’

He stays for hours, and in that time, Caleb gets through just a few more pages in his own book. His mind is filled with things he wants to say, frustrations he wants to voice because what kind of man--an _adult_ man--comes to a library to learn how to read all by himself? The ridiculousness of it is infuriating in a way he can’t place. 

When he leaves, he smiles and waves at Caleb, the sunset from outside pouring through the open door as he disappears into the commotion of Zadash.

Caleb sighs. He supposes the best thing to do is end this stupidity.

He’s ready when the man comes in the next day. The tiefling enters at the same time, mouth open as he prepares to greet Caleb when he finds the librarian absent from his counter. Instead, Caleb is already waiting at the same desk the man uses every day with a few books stacked on top and a notebook lying open on the table.

Surprised, the man walks over to wear Caleb is sitting, and the human pulls out the second chair at the table.

Caleb hesitates, though knowing he’s too far in to back out now. “Your dedication is admirable but, uh... you won’t get anywhere by yourself.”

The man blinks, and by the time Caleb notices the smile is gone from his face, it returns. This time, though, he grins in a way he hasn’t seen before, unabashedly delighted as he takes a seat beside him.

Caleb turns back to the materials on the table and opens his mouth to start talking when he’s cut off.

“Mollymauk,” the tiefling says with an outstretched hand.

Caleb pauses.

His mind reboots, and he just manages to maintain eye contact with this bright, colorful man as he shakes his hand. “Caleb.”

To do something like this is to take on quite the commitment. Learning at an older age is far more difficult than it is to do while young, he knows very well.

But it isn’t like he was doing anything else with his days, weeks, and months.

At the end of their lesson, Mollymauk helps him clean and organize the desk to the way it was before. Caleb remains at his spot as he slides bookmarks into the books they used and writes notes for the next day. As he’s leaving, Mollymauk stops in the doorway, turns, and smiles back at Caleb.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?”

Moonlight folds over his boots and coat as he stands in the open door, betraying the secret that it is anything but ‘day’ right now.

Caleb smiles as he stands from the desk. “It is.”

And the next day will be too.

**Author's Note:**

> [@ludella](ludella.tumblr.com)


End file.
